World

Sudan floods: Nile water level threatens ancient pyramids

The authorities in Sudan are trying to protect the country’s ancient pyramids from flooding as heavy rains have caused the nearby River Nile to reach record-breaking levels.

They have built sandbag walls and are pumping out water, archaeologist Marc Maillot is quoted by the AFP news agency as saying.

The site is home to a host of ruins more than 2,300 years old.

Countrywide, floods have killed nearly 100 people and made thousands homeless.

The Nile regularly bursts its banks and farmers rely on the floodwaters to create fertile land, but the extent of this year’s flooding is very unusual.

“The floods had never affected the site before,” Mr Maillot is quoted as saying.

“The situation is currently under control, but if the level of the Nile continues to rise, the measures taken may not be sufficient.”

The UN-designated World Heritage Site at al-Bajrawiya, which was the heartland of the ancient Kingdom of Kush, is normally 500m (550 yards) from the Nile, he added.

The area, 200km (125 miles) north-east of the capital, Khartoum, is home to hundreds of archaeological relics.

They comprise of pyramids, temples, palaces, cemeteries and other places of interest that “testify to the wealth and power of the Kushite State”, a major power in the region for more than 1,000 years from the eighth Century BC, the UN’s cultural organisation, Unesco, says.

Source:(BBC)